Seven Years with a Super Kid

While she didn't think so at the time, having a birthday while we were away was to A's advantage.  How many kids do you know who get four different birthday cakes?!  With S's family, she was sung to alongside S and her Uncle Rob.  She then had a cake at my parents on her actual birthday, and the next day while celebrating my nieces' baptisms, A was celebrated, too.

I'd told A she could have a party with her school friends once we returned home, so yesterday - a month after the fact - I did my "good mom" duty.  Inclined to not leave any of the girls from her class out, we'd invited all nine (though I'd secretly hoped some would be on holiday and three of them were).  Then surprisingly, two more called in sick with the stomach flu that morning.  Not being a huge organizer, it didn't throw any of my plans for a loop and it made for a nice, smaller group.  I'd thought we'd do a craft, play a game or two, then head over to the nearby school with its wading pool till lunch/cake and present-time, but they were so happy playing together that we skipped the park time.  They were a cute, funny group . . . 

The party was to be from 10:00 - 1:00, but one Dad didn't come until 3:30.  Our friends, Vani and her mom, stayed and at 4:30 went with us to the nearby wading pool where the kids played till its 5:30 closing.  I was totally amazed to see that in the course of three days, Ai has suddenly started swimming all by himself!  He would take a deep breath, throw himself under the water with eyes open and paddle around for a good while before coming back up for breath - even swimming between A's legs under the water.  Impressive for my little guy who's sometimes hesitant to try new things!  So, all-around, my kids had a super fun day, which made me happy, too.  Made up for today where I was so tired that we just stayed in and had a home-day.  

I'm thankful my kids have low expectations of what to expect for birthdays.  I even pulled a fast one with the cake, making a chocolate one out of cooked quinoa.  I had one piece left over, they loved it so much!  These photos don't totally capture it, but throughout the singing of the birthday song, Iz had been busy taking off icing and three raspberries (my usual desperate back-up, it seems, to decorate my last minute cakes)!  What a monkey . . . 

Today marked the special day of A's adoption.  I can never say how thankful we are for our beautiful inside-and-out, first-born daughter.  While all of our children are amazing gifts, each so special to us, well . . . is it wrong to acknowledge that there's really something about the first one, with the gift of parenthood she first gave?  She was the best intro we could have had to the journey of parenting and I love where she's taken us.  She's certainly worth celebrating four times each birthday . . . though certainly I'm not setting a precedent here!